Writer urges students: ‘read and persevere’

This story was originally published in The Sylva Herald. Every Monday night since January, 10 students have met for class in the Coulter building on Western Carolina University’s campus. They read stories, write and present on contemporary work—all while learning from one of America’s towering professional writers: WCU professor and Jackson County resident Ron Rash. […]

Sylva: The region’s most literary town

This story was written by Quintin Ellison, originally published in The Sylva Herald. One day last week, Catherine Carter, a poet and professor in the English department at Western Carolina University, started sketching a bubble chart to illustrate how literary and artistic engagement dovetail in this community. She didn’t complete the task. “I ran out of paper. […]

Time for poetry and prose… and beautiful words

Each year, for the past 14 years, Western Carolina University has held an annual Spring Literary Festival to reflect WCU’s commitment to providing the best humanities education possible for its students and to bring the best of the arts to the heart of the WNC Mountains. The Festival is a 4-day long event where both established […]

Ron Rash talks about writing “Serena”

“ [I] spent more time on my characters, which is probably dangerous for my mental health,” Rash said explaining the process of writing “Serena” and the main characters. It took him 14 drafts and several years to be happy how they turned out to be.  As he explained all of his novels begin with a […]

Ron Rash discusses “Serena”

Ron Rash, Western Carolina University professor and author of The New York Times bestseller “Serena”, sat down to talk about the success of his book. He gave insight on how he writes a novel, what his inspiration for the novel was and what his next steps will be. View the full report by Rebecca Romo […]

WCU’s own Ron Rash honored in October

October was a busy month for author and Western Carolina University professor Ron Rash. Rash is WCU’s advanced creative writing teacher and Cullowhee’s local celebrity. A self-described quiet man by nature, Rash has gained much notoriety since 1998 when his first work, a collection of poems entitled Eureka Mill, were published. Take a look in […]